Student ran up £20,000 debt on ‘crack’ terminals

At the height of his addiction, the student said all could think about was getting back into the bookies (PIcture: File/Alamy)

A former gambler told how he considered suicide after blowing £20,000 on fixed odds betting terminals in high-street bookies.

Matt Zarb-Cousin lost £2,500 in one day playing the machines – labelled the ‘crack cocaine’ of gambling – while a student at Birmingham University.

The 24-year-old went on to blow £14,000 in just 18 months – at the height of his addiction splurging his entire £3,000 student loan on the terminals.

‘I began to get more obsessed with the machines but more and more depressed after suffering huge losses,’ he said.

‘It began to consume my whole life. All I could think about was getting back into the bookies and gambling on the machines.’

Mr Zarb-Cousin claimed the problem began at the age of 16 when he went to a bookies and won £10 playing roulette.

‘I thought “this is easy” and went back again,’ he said. ‘I upped the stakes and in the space of a few weeks I had made £700.’

But soon his winnings began to disappear – and the losses started mounting up. ‘I started to lose and lose big,’ he said. ‘As I chased my losses, I raised the stakes even higher, and lost more and more.

‘By the time I got to university, I had already lost £6,000.’

But it was then that his addiction really started to take hold, with the politics student racking up £800 in credit card debt and maxing out overdrafts to the tune of £2,500.

Mr Zarb-Cousin, of Essex, hit rock bottom half-way through his course and contacted his parents threatening to kill himself.

He said: ‘I was in a terrible state. I knew things had to change as I was throwing my life away. I could see no other way out.’

But with the help of a support group and cognitive therapy, he managed to overcome his addiciton and pay off his debts.

He now works for a campaign called Stop The FOBTs.

‘It was a struggle but I am out of debt now and I haven’t gambled since February 2010,’ he said.